Goalie madness: Orange lacrosse team has seven goalies on campus for fall ball

Tom Mihalek/The Associated PressBobby Wardwell started nine games in goal as a freshman this past season for Syracuse and had the team's best save percentage

A gluttony of goalies has descended on the campus of Syracuse University to play lacrosse.

When the Orange lacrosse team opens fall practice, head coach John Desko will have seven goalies in camp based on returning players and newcomers.

None are seniors. There are three juniors, two sophomores and two true freshmen, all coming together to create the possibility of staging the greatest goalie competition ever to find a starter.

But wait, there's more.

Desko and his staff have lined up at least one goalie in each of the Orange’s next two recruiting classes.

One is Parker Ferrigan, who will be a senior at C.W. Baker High School in Baldwinsville this coming academic year. When Ferrigan gets to the SU campus in the fall of 2013, the Orange will have nine goalies on the roster (in theory, though there are bound to be casualties who can see the writing on the wall through their cages.)

The other future Orange goalie is Nolan Callahan, a 6-foot-4 player entering his junior year of high school at Avon Old Farms School in Avon, Conn. Callahan will graduate from high school in 2014 and be eligible to play for the Orange in 2015.

Wardwell started nine games for the Orange last season and had the team’s best goals against average at 8.85 a game. But all those goalies aren't on campus just to chart saves during games. The presence of so many bodies carrying those big sticks should provide for fierce competition. It was unsettled enough last season that Lamolinara played in 11 games with three starts and Lerman played in six games with five starts.

In 2012, Syracuse's save percentage of 9.41 a game was ranked 46th nationally among Division I teams.